


Friendship

by Bennet_Doyeni



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-14 23:38:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1282888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bennet_Doyeni/pseuds/Bennet_Doyeni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I was asked to write a short story on an emotion. This happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendship

You are the leader, with your personality it was always kind of inevitable you’d end up leading your friends. Unfortunately your party was doomed from the beginning; your friends warned you that this is what happened, but you were too caught up in your pursuit of leadership to heed their warnings. You’ve been stuck on this meteor so long you’ve forgotten how long it’s been. The room is dark, just like everywhere else on this cursed meteor. You rub your eyes and sit up, you have no idea how long you were asleep.   
“Healer, come in, I’m bored.”   
The radio responds with a static silence. Looks like she’s gone off somewhere. You decide to head back to the main room, see if anyone is awake. It’s a good thing your eyes are adjusted to the dark, because lights are few and far between in the hallways of the re-inhabited lab. You’re rounding what you think is the last corner, it’s hard to tell in this maze of passageways, when you hear a short scream from the direction you’re headed. Not again, you think to yourself. You break into a run, trying not to think of who could have screamed, don’t let it be her, don’t let it be her. You burst into the room breathing harder than you should be, a combination of panic and months of inaction on the meteor. In the glow of the main room’s computer monitors the struggle is obvious and fierce. Thank god it’s not her, you think to yourself and then are sick at your own thoughts, they’re all my responsibility, you scold yourself and charge into the fray.   
“Break it up before I break you up,” you say but the healer and the lunatic continue their violent dance across the floor and through tables. You’re going to have to do this the hard way. Fortunately for you, they’re fighting tooth and nail, nothing too sharp to try and avoid. You wade between them, throwing an elbow in the face of the healer and levering the attacker off with the other arm.  
“Stop protecting him, imbecile, he killed our friends.” A sharp pain in your knee.  
“Forget that, their deaths were my fault” you say, wincing.  
“No, forget that,” she says “stop blaming yourself and help me.”  
The lunatic has dropped his arms to his sides and is standing there with an insane grin plastered on his face.  
“I refuse, if I’d just been there for him, none of it would have happened.” It is my fault.   
Seemingly coming to lucidity, or maybe delving back into lunacy, you aren’t sure you can tell his two states apart anymore the lunatic’s grin is replaced with a look of shock and horror. He flees the room, plunging back into the maze-like darkness of the meteor.   
“Now look,” she spits, “If you’d only let me after him he wouldn’t be a threat anymore: to me, to us.”   
“He’s my friend, he needs me,” you say, “I won’t let him down.”   
Looking down at your clothing you see that both your friends were hurt, the blood on either arm shows the price of vengeance.  
You are The Leader and you have failed to protect your team.

You are the lunatic. With your childhood it was always kind of inevitable that you’d snap and end up hurting your friends. The signs were there from the beginning but you ignored them; you wanted to believe in something so badly that you believed you could be worthy of friendship. You’ve been stuck in your head for so long you aren’t sure who the real you is anymore. You sit up and bash your head on the top of the air duct. The sound echos through the meteor. You can’t sleep in the rooms anymore, ever since the seer and the healer set out to punish you, it just hasn’t been safe. Sitting up again, more gingerly this time, you sit in the darkness.  
I used to have friends you think to yourself.  
THEY WERE NEVER YOUR FRIENDS the voice in your head shoots back,   
But,   
BUT NOTHING, NONE OF THE LIARS WHO CALLED THEMSELVES YOUR FRIENDS EVER CARED FOR YOU.   
But,  
YOU HAD A PROBLEM AND WHAT, DID THEY STOP YOU? LIKE FRIENDS WOULD HAVE? NO. THEY ENCOURAGED IT.   
But it-  
YOU THINK THEY’RE YOUR FRIENDS? DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH, I’LL MAKE THEM SUFFER LIKE WE’VE SUFFERED. Too tired to resist the voices will you slump back into passiveness and watch as he, it, takes over your body. You watch from inside of your head as you crawl through the narrow passages of the air ducts, following the smell of light and blood. When you reach the grate through which the light is emanating it is still in control. You watch, too tired to fight it anymore as you swing down onto the healer. Her scream is cut short by your right hook. She recovers quickly and sends you a kick to the groin which you don’t even notice in your detached state. It gets in close, using your massive strength to its advantage, trying to grapple her to the ground. From your position outside the battle you see the leader enter the room at a sprint.  
He was my friend you think, the fight rising in you as the healer rakes her claws across your arm, drawing blood. It seems shocked.  
I TOLD YOU, YOU DON’T HAVE FRIENDS.  
He was my best friend you nearly scream at it. Further discussion is halted as the leader’s arm is pushing you away from it’s target. It reaches out to deal the Leader a vicious blow to his underarm.   
No. Leave him alone. You focus all your will and force your way back into your body. You are in control now, but not for long. Knowing this you dash back into the empty safety of the dark hallway.  
You are The Lunatic and you have someone to protect.

You are the healer, with your interests it was always kind of inevitable you’d end up creating something new with your friends. You cultivated it from the beginning, starting small, making things with your hands. You fixed tears to make new clothes, you fixed people (or tried to) to make new friends, and now you need to fix your team to make a new hope for your friends. You think you know just how to do that and the seers agree. You are implementing the plan now, to find the lunatic and remove the cancer that has plagued your team. Your radio squawks   
“Healer, come in, I’m bored.” The leader, you ignore it, you have a job to do. You turn a corner, it’s the main room, you didn’t realize you’d come back around this way. You must have gotten lost in the maze of corridors without realizing it. You decide that it’s a good time to take a break, and sit down, you’ve been patrolling for a couple of hours now and your feet are sore. When your prey drops down on you, you can’t help but let out a small scream, he may be your prey but he is still dangerous. You recover quickly, the weeks before you were trapped on the meteor honed your reflexes to a razor edge. You don’t have time for more than a few blows before the leader barges into the room. You knew he wouldn’t agree with your plan, but you know you have to do in order to protect the things you’ve made.   
“Break it up before I break you up.” Empty bravado, just what you expect from your fearless leader. He still blames himself for your predicament, as much as you wish he wouldn’t. You land another blow on your target and the leader’s arm is in your face.   
“Stop protecting him imbecile, he killed our friends.” not you, hangs in the air. You land a sharp kick to his knee, you need to cut out the infection. It is for his good and for the good of your friends.  
“Forget that, their deaths were my fault”   
“No, forget that. Stop blaming yourself and help me.” or else all of us will fail. You know it is useless arguing with him, and you can already see that his intervention is going to succeed, already the lunatic’s face is changing, the coward is regaining control. In a matter of seconds your prey has disappeared back into the night.   
“I refuse, if I’d just been there for him, none of it would have happened.” they’d still be here.  
“Now look, If you’d only let me after him, he wouldn’t be a threat anymore: to me, to us.” to any of us.   
You leave wordlessly, and retreat to lick your wounds, cleaning the blood off your arms, meticulously and carefully, until there isn’t a speck of blood left. Only afterwards do you realize that your kick drew blood. Your foot is stained with the blood of your friend.  
You are the Healer and it is your job to protect your team.


End file.
